Choices
by Sianna Kusanagi
Summary: That moment has come, Tenchi's made his choice, and Ryoko must accept that her world is gone, and choose her own path, now that Tenchi has chosen. But, what if she's mistaken? First part of a multiple part story.


The wind whispered in her ears, her teal-green hair shaking in the breeze as she soared upwards into the peach and blue light of the dawn sky. The sun traced amber trails over her pale skin, and her orange and yellow eyes gleamed golden, reflective like a cat. Her tears fell away into the sky, and as she tumbled, twirled and dove, she flew as aimlessly through the forest as her thoughts._  
_

_Of course he'd chosen Aeka. Of course he had_. Who couldn't choose the princess of one of the largest galactic Empires? Not to mention, Ryoko thought as trees whipped by underneath her, that Aeka's love was as strong as her own. For all her petty arguments with Aeka, Ryoko could sense the woman's regal steel, when push came to shove she was as fearless as Ryoko, and loved just as deeply. Aeka had her beauty, enough almost to match Ryoko's, and Aeka was one of the most esteemed people across the universe, synonymous with the image of hero, while Ryoko symbolized monster in the minds of millions.. How could a reformed criminal creation stack up to that?

And she couldn't.

He'd taken both Ryoko and Aeka aside last night, outside, near the the shrine. Ryoko had felt a steel ball of barbed weight in her stomach, and in the moonlight, Tenchi's face starkly cast into light or abrupt shadow, he looked at Ryoko first, and in his eyes was a truth so honest and so damming she knew before he spoke. All her resolve gone, she had bitten her lip, the tears welling her eyes, refusing her efforts to stop, the tears spilling over even as she thought to herself, _ "Kagato taught you how to turn off those emotions! Do it!"_

But the tears came, and she saw Tenchi's face fall as she opened her mouth and whispered, "You chose, huh?" All her steely pirate-engrained bravado fled her, and she knew she looked like a fool standing next to Aeka, whose expression was, to her credit, quietly nuetral. Ryoko searched Aeka's calm eyes, and looked at Tenchi one last time, before turning and teleporting away quickly before Tenchi could speak..

Of course she was the last to know. She figured out quickly, leaning against a tree, that Tenchi had gone to Aeka first, more than likely all flustered, and that it had been Aeka's suggestion to approach her together, both to shore up Tenchi's courage as well as send a message to Ryoko.

Well, she had gotten the damned message alright.

The green haired woman jerked upwards into the sky, leaving the vast canopy of green trees beneath her as her body rocketed into the sky. The air felt cold, brutally so, and as Ryoko sped upwards she welcomed the numb feeling of the thinning atmosphere...

She couldn't fly fast enough. Washu, as usual, was no help, even though all the women at the Masaki household were quieter today than they had been. Washu kept poking into Ryoko's mind through the link they shared, and finally the daughter shut off the link to shut her mother out.

What should she do now? Leave? She couldn't stay, there wasn't any real reason to now, and although she had grown accostomed, even comfortable with the unusual arrangement, all that had been shattered when Aeka won Tenchi's heart... she would miss Sasami, hell, she'd even miss Mihoshi, and she was torn over the fact that she would miss Aeka, but hated her as she had only hated Kagato before...

The rage surprised her, all along she had known how slim her chances were, but here as she streaked even higher into the stratosphere the anger burned through her... she was jealous.

She was jealous! Of Aeka? The cry burst from her like a peal of thunder, smoldering with the pain and disbelief and she wished for once, that there was someone around to tear apart. Damn Kagato for dying so long ago. Damn Yosho for trapping her there and damn herself for letting her icy exterior melt in the company of Tenchi...

"My Tenchi," she whispered in the thin air, the sound pitched wrong, and hearing the strange note she blinked her tears away and looked at the looming swirl of blue, green, and white that spread forth below her before curving in a sharp disc shape before the bleak darkness of space, the sun shining like a great unblinking white eye off to her left. The stars always felt ... safe to her. No wonder she fled here.

Here she could cry for herself, drop the pirate act that she hated but needed so much. and b alone. No Yosho, Kagato, Aeka, or Washu. The stars were hers. Tenchi... Tenchi was no longer hers any more... Crystalline tears floated away weightless from her orange and gold feline eyes...

"My Tenchi..." she said again, to herself. She should have said goodbye to Sasami, Mihoshi, Yosho and the rest, but that would mean she would have to say goodbye to the only man she loved, the only man that until yesterday she swore loved her back... and something in her chest thumped at the idea of having to say goodbye to him, rage prickling her at the idea of having to look at Aeka, look her in the eye and say congratulations... goodbye...

She should have said goodbye, but the only thing that made sense was the cold emptiness of the stars before her, and so she let herself drift outward, away from the grasp of Earth's embrace. She whispered "Goodbye my Tenchi," and floated away, heading to a distant star, looking something she could never have.

End Part One.


End file.
